Rarely
has vengeance been so exquisite. Edmonde Dantes is a French sailor who
innocently agrees to deliver a letter for the exiled Napolean and swiftly finds
himself under arrest. Without benefit of trial or being allowed to take leave
of his family or fiancée, Dantes is condemned for life in the notorious island
prison known as Chateau d'If. Thinking him dead, his fiancée marries the man
who had secretly betrayed him, and Dantes lives without hope in solitary
confinement for 14 years, dreaming of revenge. An unexpected twist of fate
gives him the opportunity to enact his plan. This 2002 movie starring Jim
Caviezel and Guy Pierce offers a condensed but close adaptation of Alexandre
Dumas's famous novel with excellent cinematography and costumes. The late
Richard Harris plays the role of the long-time prisoner who is key to Dantes'
change in fortune.
The
library has selected the movie to coincide with the recently published
non-fiction The Black Count by Tom Reiss. The book, which has been
praised as "one of the best biographies of 2012," chronicles the
life of Dumas' father, a Haitian-born slave who rose to the rank of general in
the French army before being railroaded into a sentence of life
imprisonment in solitary confinement by his enemies. The movie will screen
Tuesday, January 8, at 6:30 p.m.
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